Materials Chemistry (MCh)

New contributions towards the basic understanding of the correlations between synthesis conditions and materials structure and chemistry evolution are required to realize synthesis and application of tailor-made multi-functional materials. Through a combination of theory and experiment MCh seeks to contribute towards the scientific basis that will allow for designing materials with respect to phase stability and elastic properties. On the basis of calculations and simulations, promising “materials candidates” are selected and synthesized on a laboratory scale. By employing film combinatorics (a co-deposition from multiple plasma sources) thin films with concentration gradients are produced, which are then spatially resolved analyzed with respect to composition, structure, elastic properties, and phase stability. This approach can be viewed as “targeted materials screening”.